Cycles of vengeance in Aeschylus's Oresteia and O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra

Aeschylus - the Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides)

The Oresteia offers the reader a close and intensive immersion with a truly pained universe of suffering: each play still has at its core a sense of flush of promise and vibrancy of Athens that was pushing forth and evolving into greatness. Even so, the author Aeschylus is able to captures a sense of the undercurrents of the primal vengeance that still defined this society. Each of the plays has in a common a strong pillar of the humanity and the lack of humanity that needs to be held in balance as the events spin and unfold. One could argue that the notion of suffering into truth is something which defines each of the plays in the trilogy. For instance, the first play thrusts the reader into a world which has been largely defined by the suffering of the Trojan War and the traumatic scandals of the House of Atreus.

The plays demonstrate how the history of this period and this region have been stained by acts of violence and vengeance in both personal and in private manners, calling forth further misery and grudges in what appears to be a never-ending cycle. Agamemnon depicts the killing of the title character by Clytaimnestra to avenge the sacrifice of her daughter killed for a strong result in the war of Troy. These acts of retaliation only continue in the trilogy, with Orestes killing his mother as a means of retaliation for the death of his father. One of the greatest discoveries of the work, as blood-soaked as it is, is that the suffering the individuals have to experience is only exacerbated by the violence they wage on others.

Eugene O'Neill - Mourning Becomes Electra

O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra capitalizes on the theme of the proud family with a lineage carved in suffering and denial, focusing on the Mannon family. The Mannon family encapsulates old New England money as they are a family of community leaders, affluent shipbuilders and military heroes. However, dark secrets besiege the family's past that is evocative of the House of Atreus in its sense of darkness and suffering shrouded in secrecy. The as the reader progresses through this play, it becomes apparent that the house is built on a common thread of hate and resentment. The hate is rings strongly throughout the play and strong evokes the sense of Greek tragedy present in the House of Atreus. Consider one of the excerpts by the character Lavinia, as she indirectly describes what is plaguing the Mannon family: "I love everything that grows simply-- up toward the sun-- everything that's straight and strong! I hate what's warped and twists and eats into itself and dies for a lifetime in shadow." Essentially the Mannon family is that dark thing that eats itself and fester in shadow. It is an entity which has begun to attack itself, and which is decaying past the accolades and successes the externally it looks like the family has achieved.

Reading the play is in a sense an exploration of one's darkest secrets and it essentially means that the tragedy forces the reader to take a long look into the most uncomfortable aspects of suicide, incest and other forms of depravity and personal suffering.

James Joyce - Grace (The Dubliners)

This short story, written in 1905 is one which demonstrates without a doubt the strong role of faith and religious conversion in the lives of the Irish. The divisions of the narrative seem to both evoke and reject the notion of redemption, but still continually explore it. Mr. Kernan is a character who represents the man who has lost his faith, and has fallen -- both literally and metaphorically -- within the story. In this story the reader sees how the truth has to be pulled out of the characters, and how people are often abandoned by those close to them during their time of need. Kernan in many ways can be seen as the catalyst of the narrative: he engages in a steady downwards spiral. So much is presented to the reader in this short story: the place of class and refinement, the place of duty and obligation, and the difference between going to Church and falling down drunk in a pub.

One can even read the story and interpret it as a scathing indictment of the Church, one which accuses the Church of being a place where healing cannot occur. Ultimately, the story asks the question about what grace is and forces one to explore the multiple meanings of the word, asking the fundamental question if humans can be saved using the power of God.

Archibald McLeash - J.B.

This play is clearly based on the Biblical text of the story of Job and the nature of human suffering. One of the most remarkable aspects of the play that the reader immediately discovers is that it is written in verse and the major theme of the play -- suffering -- is based on the lived experience of the author. McLeash was one who witnessed many horrors during the first two world wars, such as the horrors which were particular to World War II: the holocaust and the atom bombs in Japan. McLeash appears to be sorting out his own feelings about these questions. In fact, the fundamental question presented in this book, is the question that is posed throughout the biblical text of the Book of Job, which is why bad things happen to good people. McLeash essentially tells the story of a modern day Job who is stripped of his family and his wealth but who will not renounce his faith or his relationship with God.

One of the most remarkable things about the play is that the central character discovers that justice is non-existent and that happiness and suffering are often not deserved. One of the central discoveries of the finding is that love is a choice while the nature of hope and of God are explored. Another fascinating aspect of this play as a reaction to or adaptation of the Book of Job, is that J.B. ends up denouncing both God and Satan, offering human love as the only means of offering some soothing aspect of human suffering: MacLeish seems to also offer a harsh criticism of human suffering with the introduction of the Marxist, the priest and the psychologist at the end. One of the overwhelming strengths of the play is how original and imaginative it is. There is a pervasive sense of alienation that JB struggles with and the notion of how devastating it is to witness human sorrow. The play also notably offers up a strong survey of the variety of various notions of god and how largely many of them are inadequate.

William Shakespeare - Othello

Othello is one of the most famous and most notable works of William Shakespeare and is one which demonstrates the role in which tragedy and suffering can purify. There's a strong sense of the necessity of imaginary sympathy being replaced with mere selfishness instead and speaks to the necessity of the interest outside of oneself. In this play, Shakespeare is able to achieve some pretty loft goals such as making certain remote and lofty notions more accessible for humanity, by showing the threads which bind us together. When reading Othello, one can't but feel expressly sympathetic and completely engrossed: in many ways the play is a ballad about passion, imagination, temptation and fatal excesses. On the other hand, Shakespeare is perhaps suggesting that tragedy can help in balancing the affections and emotions, making one more thoughtful -- this suggestion is presented to the reader in a memorable and highly visual manner. The struggles of the characters become both morbid and picturesque.

The play explores the nature of pride and gravitas along with the notion of honor, and this is something that Othello himself struggles with. Even so, there's the suggestion of insecurity which Shakespeare explores and the notion of manipulation. Just as McLeash suggests that the only solace to suffering is human love, Shakespeare suggests that the only solace to insecurity is through self-love, inner truth and a belief in oneself. However, this play is also riddled with the theme of the connecting nature of suffering. In killing Desdemona, Othello and Desdemona are united in a higher level of intimacy than before -- the intimacy of suffering.

Paula Vogel - Desdemona, a Play about a Handkerchief

Vogel's play takes a more courageous look at one of Shakespeare's most famous and most misunderstood heroines. Too many critics have dismissed Desdemona as a mere one-dimensional archetype, but this playwright explores the intriguing idea that perhaps Desdemona had been guilty and had been more of a shadier character. Vogel seems to suggest that perhaps Desdemona was not at all innocent but guilty of a serious infidelity. Vogel's play makes a startling indictment of men -- their abuse and the suffering they inflict. In Vogel's universe, men are hardly the allies of women. Vogel is also able to aptly portray Desdemona as more than just a victim as circumstance. Vogel is also able to really arise some questions about the role of women throughout the ages and gender roles as a whole. For instance, Desdemona shares the tales of her conquest, having slept with all of Othello's men as a rapt audience of women. As the play goes on, the reader sees how Desdemona is motivated by money and power, and that the bonds between women turn out to be very flimsy. There's also strong allusions to female sociality that is generally suppressed in most works of Shakespeare. Vogel also deftly intertwines comedy and tragedy, making some of the most memorable themes in the play amusingly presented so that they are more memorable and lasting.